still pretty ridiculous that Columbia hasn't just released a Basement Tapes box setHow true. There are plenty of decent tracks that still haven't seen the light of day (officially, anyway). And I doubt the remastered version will come anywhere close to matching the sound on the A Tree With Roots bootleg.

yeah, i just get the feeling they're holding on to it for when Dylan is dead, or isn't making albums anymore, or something. Which still might be a while! But since it is sort of the "ultimate" bootleg, they probably want to milk it for all it's worth. Not as though they haven't had someone compile all that stuff, since every now and again a track is officially released, like "I'm Not There" on the soundtrack of the same name.

I went with "Apple Suckling Tree". It has a catchy tune first of all and is great fun to sing along with, esp. with kids. The way he sings "suckling" makes it sound lewd, and given the rest of these songs, I think that's intentional. So, points there. What's the song about? It sounds goofy and sinister at the same time, and knowing what I know about John Wesley Harding I read the tree as a reference to the story of Adam and Eve. God and sex: if the intersection of these is one of your central preoccupations, and you do it in a fun way with a great tune, then I'll have a lot of time for you.

apple suckling tree is sooooo good. robbie robertson on the drums! what a sweet beat! and then Garth's rollicking solo .... and of course, Dylan's vocal. Honestly, I think this is my favorite singing voice of Dylan's.

It's impossible for me think about this in terms of an empirical best, so I gotta go with "Lo and Behold!" Whenever I listen to The Basement Tapes, that song always makes me think, That's where they figured out they could do almost anything and it would work.

"Orange Juice Blues" and "Yazoo Street Scandal" are two of my very favourite Band songs, but they weren't really part of the sessions, were they? So I'm gonna go with the indescribably flaky "Yea Heavy...", probably my alltime favourite song title.

(This thread has inspired me to d/l that "Tree With Roots" thing and create my own basement tapes.)

Tree With Roots is a must, not only for the wealth of stuff that isn't on the official release, but because so many of the official songs were overdubbed by Robbie and some of the other Band members in 1974. Granted, the overdubs are pretty tastefully done, but there is something about those raw tapes...

There's a lot more stereo separation on most of the "Roots" tracks, too. Garth Hudson did a magnificent job with the equipment he had at the time (only 3 mics, I believe), but you'd never know it from listening to just the official release.

yeah, the official release is kinda in mono, isn't it? wonder if this remaster will be improved, or what? but no kidding, Hudson made some of that stuff sparkle in a way that a million dollars worth of equipment couldn't have. Though I guess I've read that his set-up wasn't quite as bare-bones as some have later claimed -- he had access to a bunch of Dylan's state-of-the-art sound equipment from the 1966 tours.

it's always been my dream that there'll be some lost cache of Basement Tapes with them playing songs from John Wesley Harding ... as wonderful as that record is, sometimes I find it utterly insane that Dylan did not record it with the Band. There are a few wonderful examples of what they might've done with it on the Isle of Wight 69 bootleg.

i guess there is a story of Dylan asking Robbie Robertson and Garth Hudson to overdub parts on to JWH, but Robertson said "No man, keep it pure." What a piece of shit Robbie Robertson is. And yet I love him.

People call this record mysterious or magic; if so it's in the three-card-monte sense, working by diversion, misdirection, trying to confound understanding, to get the audience to enjoy being fooled. So much of this record is a tease, inside jokes and deliberate nonsense, bluffing and never showing its hand. I've bought books about this record and never read them, worried it would feel too much like watching dissection of a live subject; even if it survives, it'd be forever scarred, imprinted with someone else's take. Despite which here's mine:

A1. Always wanted to do a doublespeed punk cover. A2. Normal breakup song but paired with a let's work it out chorus. In the "beautiful beautiful" punch line, this guy reveals he can't stand to have things that aren't broken. A3. Pretty drowsy for a song about heaven, or a swinging party, which is as close as this record gets. A4 & A5. The party gets out of hand. Beyond care for morality, sex as cataclysm as rollicking good time, so bring on the flood, just go and pump on the well. A6. As told by the last one to know.

B1. Lays a few tricks on you -- hooks you by mentioning some unexplained shame, appears to have a narrative thread involving moose, but nothing is revealed. Still I'm prepared to accept as proven that Pittsburgh = Chicken Town, QED. B2. Feels too well composed to fit in with the Dylan songs, where the prevailing moods are off-the-cuff or overwrought. B3. Simple story of being caught acting like you're not just some kid, treated as an epic Saga. B4. This song choogles. B5. About getting so drunk you piss yourself. And yet somehow Mrs. Henry resists his amorous advances. B6. Dylan's most heartrending song and singing. Never seen anyone so enraged they cried -- grief yes, but rage? (Yes I know it's poetry.)

C1. I first heard this in Peter Paul & Mary's perversely cheerful version, but this song wants to be sluggish, drained. C2. Feels like the opposite of You Ain't Going Nowhere -- not just drifting along but in a mighty hurry. Like Lo and Behold, a Biblical title sends the singer all over the map, though in this case even with specific destinations named it feels like he's going nowhere (fast). C3. Loose and swaggering, ultimately reverential. When I was introduced to this record I was told "there's nothing like it" but including a cover song means it can't be wholly sui generis -- this ain't no old weird America they just dreamed up one day. C4. Taunting or teasing about friends washed away, either way adding insult to injury. C5. Everything feels buried in the mix by everything else: echoed vocals, drum thuds, plinked piano, carnival organ stabs, muted distorted guitar fills. C6. The only side that doesn't end with a devastation. Upbeat number with optimistic lyrics so naturally the backup vocals sound like the moans of glum zombies.

D1. Another song about people failing to get away with handing out BS lines to each other (or in this case, to themselves). D2. Our son's named Henry, and my parents sometimes serenaded him with Please Mrs. Henry, but never with Don't Ya Tell Henry -- is this song that unmemorable? Or did they just never make it to the second record? D3. A song this final should end a record, but they're not done shuffling the deck. D4. Can't break down why this song works so well, it doesn't particularly DO anything, it just IS. Chorus stays true to side 4's commitment to finality. Great draggy backup vocals. D5. Penultimate track is as good a place as any for a throwaway. Your basic blues number, good guitar but otherwise nothing special, though it cleanses the palate and clears the stage for D6. When the record DOES show it's emotions, as here, it knocks you out without even seeming to try.

ok liner notes say Helm is vocalist on yazoo street scandal. damned if the way he sings "stranded out in the night" doesn't throw me... but by the time he gets to "i just ordered a flood for forty days and forty nights" it all makes sense

i haven't seen or heard the Last Waltz before, so i was hoping there'd be a version of it on there, perhaps complete with neil young's cocaine booger in the background. but nope, it's not part of that setlist, or any other apparently.

i guess people don't rep for "ruben remus" because they're listening to the basement tapes to hear bob dylan, but Manuel just nails the vocal. he sounds so sweet and of his time in an endearing way. and the band (as in "the band") is totally on fire. it would be nice to hear an uninterrupted recording of that session from whatever night that was, because they sound like they couldn't possibly sound bad even if they tried.